This is for Nerikka, who goes by DeepBrokenLover on FFN, as I'm led to believe. Merry Christmas! I don't think I did Natsume and Mikan justice and I wrote a lot more than I thought I would but I hope you still like this anyway. ;u;
Beta-ed by Andrea (AndreggvilJammer). Thank you so much ouji-sama! I don't think I can ever express my appreciation enough. :"D
Oh, and tacky title, but the idiom "get blood out of a stone" sorta fit. So yeah. Enjoy if you can. uwu
At age fifteen, Mikan Sakura's life took a 180-degree turn towards her nightmares. That was the year her mother, Yuka, a detective in her prime, became too good at her job of prodding around. By some logic of nature, that immediately made her a target of ninja assassins hired by a cowardly force of evil. Her mother had amazingly managed to dodge the attacks for a while; but her death was already marked and she could run but she could not hide.
The fateful day came a week after the attacks started, when Yuka and Mikan were at a picnic. It had started out as a beautiful day, really, but both mother and daughter could feel the pressure from the shadows – it was so strong even the strawberry jam sandwiches could sense it. They saw them too late, however; one was around Yuka's height, tall and lithe and clad in all-black, but the other was shorter and more slender and definitely around Mikan's age. When Yuka made the decision of sacrificing herself to protect her daughter, she ended up with a kunai through her heart and another puncturing her lung.
The assassins had seen the wailing teen by her mother's side, and had chosen to spare her – 'she's just a girl, she knows better than to speak up about something like this anyway,' one of them said to the other, and Mikan was sure she would never ever forget that voice.
Yuka took her final breath a minute after she reached the hospital. That was the minute Mikan Sakura, age fifteen, swore to the listening gods that she would avenge her mother and make Yuka's killers pay.
She was lucky to start training to be a kunoichi in Alice Academy.
The Academy was one of the most renowned and prestigious ninja academies in Japan. Sensei taught surprisingly well, and the lessons and equipment available were top-notch. Mikan would've enjoyed training so much if it wasn't for such a dark cause, and if training wasn't such a bitch.
Food was allowed only twice a day, and in addition, fasting sessions were much too often – ninja sometimes had to go on missions without food for days, but evidently the fact that growing teenage kunoichi like Mikan needed more food than a whole team of basketball players was foreign to the ninja higher-ups. What little sleep they got each night was sometimes interrupted by Sensei sneaking into the rooms, either "slitting" their necks with a ruler or flipping their futons over, claiming it was training them to be more alert even when they were subconscious.
There was also plenty of stealth work: much disguising and impersonating, more hide-and-seek and kick-the-can than Mikan had ever played in her childhood, and simply too much running. Sensei put particular focus on breathing when running – how you breathed affected the volume of your footsteps a lot more than Mikan thought – and she wished Sensei's hair wasn't so nice because a man wasn't meant to have nice shoulder-length blond hair like that and it was making Mikan hyperventilate.
And of course, there was the fighting: the pyrotechnics, the hand-to-hand combat, the spears and naginata and kakute. The kunai-throwing. It had felt strange at first, to hold the same weapon that had killed her mother. The weapon felt so foreign in her hands; Mikan didn't know how to hold it properly, didn't want to hold it properly.
But she had sworn to avenge her mother. So Mikan pushed down her fear, held in her sniffles, and learnt to throw the kunai.
Mikan Sakura was loud, cheerful, helpful and almost clumsy – exactly the type no one expected to be a successful kunoichi. Even Sensei and her classmates underestimated her.
But she sure showed them, when she threw the kunai and hit the same spot on the battered mannequin 10 times in a row.
It was the week after that particular show of talent that Mikan was paired up for a week of sparring with Hotaru Imai. The girl was Mikan's age, but she wasn't the type to make small talk or do things that used up too much energy – not exactly the best person to be around.
Hotaru was known to have less bark than her bite; she was one of those silent killers. Not a day of hand-to-hand combat went without Hotaru giving Mikan a few more bruises than necessary, and it hurt each night when she tried (and failed) to gather information on her mother's killers.
On the sixth day, Mikan discovered the tessen and took a particular liking to using it. The fan looked normal, but its frames were iron and Mikan didn't ever want to be clubbed by it. It was also very useful for defending against jabs and stabs from blades, and the harmless-looking fan in her hands proved itself to be much more than it seemed.
That day was the day Hotaru, who had actually lost feeling in her arm from a hit from the harmless-looking fan, finally saw the too-loud and too-energetic and seemingly-harmless girl named Mikan in a different light.
A week before Hotaru's initiation to become a full-fledged kunoichi, the girls finally shared a full conversation that wasn't about what weapon they would like to try that day.
"Why are you here?" Hotaru asked.
"Because… I'm training as a ninja…?" The question was simple, and it made Mikan suspicious.
"And why are you training, Mikan? You're not exactly the typical kunoichi," Hotaru said.
"Why do you want to find out?" Mikan asks. She knows Hotaru's right; she's the opposite of everyone's perfect image of a kunoichi.
"It's strange," Hotaru replied. There was a hint of a smile on her face. "It bothers me that we've been here together for at least a year and I still don't know much about you. Only that you're almost seventeen, seemingly innocent but quite dangerous with a mere fan." Mikan laughed.
"I still have a long way to go," she said. She took a deep breath and looked into Hotaru's purple, purple eyes. "I signed up for this, because I want to avenge my mother and make her killers pay."
Hotaru didn't respond for a while – only looked steadily back at Mikan – until she finally let out a chuckle under her breath.
"You know, a reason like watching a ninja anime and being immediately inspired would suit you a lot more."
It only took six and a half minutes after that for Mikan to tell Hotaru the gist of things, and five more for the two classmates and partners to become close friends.
It was six and a half days later when Hotaru promised to provide outside information about Yuka Azumi's killers, and to relay whatever relevant information she might overhear on her missions.
It took six and a half seconds for Mikan to hug and almost choke her friend and partner to death.
Hotaru hadn't broken her promise and, two weeks after being initiated and joining the Hanahime organization, provided Mikan with her gathered information. When Mikan jokingly asked where Hotaru got her information from, the girl replied, "I have my sources," and it sounded very ominous to Mikan's ears.
The envelope contained documents and information on two assassins, both of whom worked for the Kikennouryoku – one was Hajime Yakumo, a ninja famous for his skill with a poison blowgun, but had passed away a year ago. The other, though, was still alive; a young man known for his skill with pyrotechnics and explosives, who went by the name of Black Cat: Natsume Hyuuga.
Hotaru had also included a document on a man who everyone knew only by his surname, Kuonji. Not much was known about him, except that he was infamous in the underground for too many connections with the wrong people, and everyone could easily picture him as someone who hired others to do his dirty work. Hotaru had also written a note saying, 'Apparently Kuonji was the head of a whole syndicate, but he escaped when they were busted by a combined force of police and detectives from Tokyo. I think Yuka-san might have been part of that. Strangely enough, his first name is still a mystery, but I'll look into it further.'
Mikan didn't think she could ever thank Hotaru enough.
Mikan Sakura became a full-fledged kunoichi a week after she turned eighteen. With her history of education in Alice Academy and a recommendation letter from Sensei, Mikan's entry into Kikennouryoku was a quick and easy affair. They gave her an initial test: assassinate a member of the emperor's guards with a history of fraud and extortion. Mikan had made it quick with a few kunai, and the missions then became one assassination in every eight missions. It was like Japanese public servants never tired of committing crimes that made them targets.
Often Mikan found herself wondering what crime they thought her mother could possibly have committed. Yuka Azumi was only doing her job.
"This is your new partner from now on," her boss says, passing a file to her. When Mikan opens it, she's surprised to see a name she's seen before: Natsume Hyuuga. The photo attached shows a cat mask covering a (presumably male) face with raven hair. Mikan doesn't know whether to laugh or cry, because fate is somehow helping her avenge her mother but she's also one step closer to becoming a full-fledged killer (not that she isn't already, with all the assassinations she's done).
Her boss sees the conflicting emotions on her face, and he must mistake them for confusion because he explains, "The Black Cat is one of the best in the business. You can increase your skill and experience by working with him. If you can tolerate him, that is."
"That's great…" Mikan mutters. She doesn't know what else to say – she doesn't really want to know what he meant by if you can tolerate him, and a simple thank you doesn't seem too appealing. Her boss nods, mutters a "Good luck" and leaves quickly, almost vanishing on the spot.
On her sixth week of being an assassin, Mikan finally wonders whether she's doing the right thing, if killing so many (possibly innocent) people on her quest to avenge her mother will be worth it in the end.
Mikan Sakura often finds that when she gets butterflies in her stomach, like now, her fingers fiddle with a clear stone with a red gem inside it, hanging from her neck by a red thread. It had been her mother's – she said it had been made by her dearest friend, and there was only two of the kind. It was the last present Mikan's mother ever gave her.
The young man hides behind a cat mask on the first evening they meet, and Mikan thinks that's particularly rude. In normal society, anyway; ninja courtesy still wasn't Mikan's forte. A blond young man hiding behind a plain gray half-mask stands beside Natsume Hyuuga, perhaps as a mediator of sorts. He introduces himself as Ruka Nogi and introduces Natsume to Mikan and Mikan to Natsume. Not that it's necessary; Mikan is sure Natsume has done at least some research on his new partner, and Hotaru found so much information on the Black Cat that Mikan now knows even what he normally eats for breakfast.
"I apparently have to train a newbie like you," the Black Cat says, and Mikan can't retort because his voice is much much deeper than she expected. There's a little voice niggling at the back of her mind screaming something she can't understand, but she ignores it. "We'll see if you can keep up, but if you drag me down during a mission even once then I call it quits."
At this point, Ruka pinches Natsume's sleeve and hisses his name. Mikan doesn't know what comes over her – maybe the thought of meeting her mother's killer face to face is dragging Mikan to the road of insanity – but she laughs and mockingly salutes the young man.
"Yessir, and at that point the cat will leave the mandarin to the dogs, yes?"
Ruka is evidently taken aback, and Mikan laughs even more. It disappoints her, though, when she can't see the reaction behind the cat mask covering Natsume's face.
Their first mission is easy: infiltrate a minister's well-guarded home and assassinate his daughter without forgetting to leave the Kikennouryoku mark – a star with an 'A' inside – which Natsume draws with the girl's blood. It's easier because Natsume does all the work (setting up an explosion on one side of the grounds and breaking in to the other, where the target's room is, while the guards are distracted) while Mikan only follows and runs around with the Black Cat.
It doesn't make it any less horrible. Mikan doesn't think the guilt clenching her guts would ever go away, but she realizes the mission is much too easy for a ninja of Hyuuga's caliber. She wonders what the young man thinks of that.
He doesn't say anything though, and the mask is at a perpetual state of passiveness.
During their fifth mission, Mikan hears the little voice screaming at the back of her mind again. This time, she understands it. Her mind tells her that Natsume Hyuuga's voice is familiar, because she's heard it before and refused to forget it.
His voice is the same one she heard three years ago at the park, in between her mother's struggles for breath and her own wails. It's the same voice that spared Mikan and gave her the chance to live – gave her the chance to kill him.
It's during their eleventh mission that Mikan does something terribly stupid.
They had underestimated the guards' abilities to focus on their own area. Mikan and Natsume had to break in the silent-burglar way, but even then, they got caught. So here they are now, standing back-to-back, facing the guards that surround them.
"Do what you can," Natsume mutters, and he moves quickly, planting dynamites and firecrackers at the guards' feet while dodging the swords swinging at him, almost Matrix-style. Mikan does well enough by throwing the kunai and shuriken hidden in her sleeves, but eventually she runs out and the guards still keep coming. She's forced to use her dagger, but that's quickly knocked out of her hands by a sword.
Mikan is left with the tessen, and she manages to strike three guards charging at her in one swing. It's so comfortable and familiar in her hands that she wonders why it wasn't the first thing she used.
Being fixated on the fan, Mikan sees the guard with his dagger charging at Natsume's back almost last-minute. Her arm stretches out in reflex, and the dagger stabs into the fan instead. Mikan quickly flips the fan and stabs the guard with the tip of his own dagger. Natsume turns his head at the man's groan, sees the scene, and gives Mikan a grateful and barely imperceptible nod.
In the next minute, Natsume takes off his mask in frustration. This is the first time Mikan sees his face – sharp nose, short knitted eyebrows and red, red eyes. His accuracy with unsurprisingly increases; and Mikan is sorta kinda in awe of the young man and his skills but definitely not his looks.
Only after the battle is over, after they hurry to the target, make a quick but messy assassination and barely escape – only after all that does Mikan realize she saved the life of her mother's killer. She groans.
It's terribly stupid, but Mikan consoles herself by thinking Hyuuga should at least remotely appreciate her presence now.
She's wrong. With a history of sixteen missions together with Natsume Hyuuga, Mikan is confident to say that the young man is still a jerk, to say the least. He rarely talks to her, even after she's saved his life; and when he does talk, it's to chide Mikan for being talkative or something along those lines. The only improvement is that the cat mask is appearing less often, but Mikan thinks Natsume's in the 'now that my face has been revealed there's no point hiding it from this idiotic girl' mindset. It's only Natsume's similarities to Hotaru, giving off a 'cool and smart' aura and being silent killers, that makes Mikan tolerate the young man.
"Hey, Hyuuga," she says one night, as they jump rooftops and fly over the city. "How did you end up in the ninja scene?"
The young man gives her a withering glance.
"Nosy, aren't you," he says.
"No, only curious," Mikan says stubbornly. She waits a few moments, but after realizing the young man wouldn't speak up any time soon, she chuckles. She should have known it would be a lost cause.
On her and Natsume's twenty-first mission, Mikan meets Hotaru Imai again on a building rooftop.
"Hotaru!" she calls out in a hushed tone. The girl turns around – Mikan didn't realize how much she missed those purple eyes – but to Mikan's dismay, Hotaru only says:
"You're alive."
Mikan likes to think Hotaru at least sounded happy about it.
"Why are you here?" Mikan asks, jogging towards Hotaru and holding back from hugging her. She's sure Hotaru wouldn't appreciate it during a mission.
"I have a message to give," Hotaru says. She looks over Mikan's shoulder, and asks, "Who's your friend?"
Just as Mikan replies, "He's the Black Cat without the cat mask," Natsume comes up behind her and argues, saying, "We're not friends."
Hotaru's eyes slightly widen as she looks at Mikan, who gives her a specific look. The girl looks back at Natsume and says flatly, "It was an expression. I'm sorry if it confused you, Black Cat."
Hotaru doesn't sound sorry at all, and Mikan giggles at the affronted expression on Natsume's face. She was starting to get used to Natsume without his mask, because at least he doesn't always seem impassive.
"Anyway," Hotaru says, "a message from Hanahime to the Kikennouryoku: Hii-sama wants to work together to bring down Kuonji Haki."
It's her most difficult mission so far, and almost all of Kikennouryoku's and Hanahime's best ninja are infiltrating Kuonji's secret hideout. As the Black Cat's partner, Mikan was given the choice to accept or refuse the mission; and it was an easy decision.
So here she is with some of the best in the business, trying to get as far into Kuonji's estate as they can before Kuonji's henchmen find them.
They don't get far at all. The estate, surrounded by cream walls around 5 meters high, could be a school campus for titans, considering its size and grandeur. The only proper entrance is the large iron gates, through which seven chariots could probably fit side-by-side. There are about ten different buildings inside, and Mikan isn't sure but she might have seen a forest in the blueprints created by the ninja who staked out the estate.
Before the first few waves of ninja even reach the first building they see, the guards come like a tsunami wave and surround them. Before Mikan even realizes, she's already fighting with three kunai in one hand and her tessen in the other, only just keeping up with the attacking guards. Somewhere in front, Natsume is making a scene with fire, and Mikan spots Hotaru and Ruka Nogi with his gray half-mask in the first line of defence.
It's a long time, and a lot of sacrifices, before they reach the building that the higher-ups believe to be the main office. Mikan wants to rush forward – adrenaline and the thirst for revenge pumps through her blood, and she's never felt this before-
It distracts her. Her group turns the corner, and she's surrounded by ninja from the Hanahime who don't care who she is, much less where she goes. Mikan takes this chance to find Kuonji by herself.
Fate is seriously on her side, Mikan realizes, because after the fourth door she kicks down, she meets the man himself.
"Oh," Kuonji says dryly. "I thought I would get to be surrounded by a whole line of ninja. I didn't expect a single kunoichi falling almost flat on her face."
"Jerk," Mikan says. Immediately she knows it's an understatement, so she makes up for it with the loudness of her war cry. The man dodges her charge, of course, and somehow he ends up behind her, about to exit the room.
"Let's play a game, daughter of Yuka Azumi," he says, sneering. "A game of cat and mouse."
Mikan, you are an idiot, she says to herself. She tries to apply Sensei's breathing techniques once again, and rushes to chase after Kuonji.
He taunts her continuously, always waiting for her before turning the corner. It annoys Mikan to no end, but it annoys her more that she bites the bait and pumps her legs harder. She reminds herself that the other ninja should be coming soon and she only has to put up with Kuonji for only a short while longer.
The next corner, however, she almost bumps into Kuonji's back. Her nose feels hot and what is that crackling noise?
"Sakura!" she hears Natsume yell, somehow hearing him above Kuonji's screams, and suddenly the world around her is red and orange and fire. "Sakura, move!"
Kuonji is being engulfed in flames, Mikan realizes. She's suddenly paralyzed because her mother's killer is being burnt alive right in front of her. A part of her thinks, 'good, much deserved,' but her conscience tells her even that is too much for the worst of people.
The cat mask is suddenly right in front of her face and Mikan is getting dragged back. She can clearly see Kuonji burning burning burning and the Kikennouryoku/Hanahime combined forces are merely watching the flames engulf him and the walls nearby, and she can feel Natsume's slender but strong arm around her stomach.
"I thought the cat would leave the mandarin to the dogs," she mutters weakly. Natsume only lets out a 'tch'.
Their last mission together is the type of mission fit exactly for a Natsume-caliber ninja. The higher-ups say that if Mikan survives this, her 'training' with the Black Cat finishes.
The mission requires them to disguise themselves to investigate the target, tail him until they can separate him from his bodyguards, and to make the death as unsuspicious as possible. It ends in the target's own room with a drug overdose, and if that isn't an anticlimactic ending to their final mission then Mikan doesn't know what is.
On their way back, Mikan realizes her best chance to avenge her mother is now or never. While she's deliberating over this, Natsume – surprisingly – starts speaking.
"You were that girl with Yuka Azumi four years ago." It doesn't come out as a question, but Mikan knows Natsume requires at least some acknowledgement of his statement. She vaguely wonders what he would do if she said yes – would he shrug, as if it was just something he was curious about, or would he finish her off right there and then?
She risks it, and says 'yes'.
Natsume reaches into his shirt, and Mikan subtly gets into a fighting stance, thinking he's reaching for a shuriken or something. He pulls out a string around his neck, however, and Mikan sees a clear stone with a red gem hanging from it.
Her jaw drops, and her hand immediately flies to her sternum, where a similar pendant rests beneath her clothing.
"From my mother, Kaoru Hyuuga," Natsume says, his fingers playing with the stone. The name rings a few shrill bells in Mikan's mind. "She never really stopped talking about Yuka Azumi, her dearest friend in the whole wide world. Gave me the pendant that only the two of them had, before she died in a car accident."
Mikan automatically goes to say, "I'm sorry," but before she can say 'sorry', Natsume interrupts. "Don't be sorry," he says, frowning. "I was tasked with killing your mother. You'd be an idiot to be sorry."
It effectively shuts Mikan up. She tries to tell herself that her mother's connection with Hyuuga Natsume's mother doesn't matter, that he's still her mother's killer; but Mikan knows she's lying to herself. She realized it earlier, but only refused to accept it – Natsume might have done the deed, but he was only following orders. If anyone deserves Mikan's revenge, it's Kuonji, and he's already been served.
At age nineteen, Mikan Sakura's desire to punish her mother's "killer" quickly dissipates.
When they reach the rooftop where they normally split up, Mikan is hesitant.
"Well… it's been great working with you," she says. Natsume nods.
"You were pretty good for a newbie," he says.
Mikan snorts. "You're lucky I don't want to avenge my mother by killing you anymore," she says. "And thanks for that time you set Kuonji on fire, no matter how evil that sounds. It was retribution enough."
Natsume shrugs. There's a moment of awkward silence, which Natsume breaks by muttering, "Do your best, mandarin," before jumping off the rooftop and landing on the ground like a cat. Mikan thinks it's fitting.
Mikan soon becomes known by the tacky nickname of Mandarin Blossom, but at least she's feared for her skills with the tessen. Sure, she does too much dirty work, but the only escape from being a kunoichi assassin is death and no she will not go there.
Hotaru is one of the strongest in the Hanahime, and Mikan rarely has time to see the girl, even to thank her for all she's done. But Mikan sees Natsume more often, when they pass each other on missions or on days when Mikan shops for groceries, and they would give each other acknowledging nods. Sometimes, on casual days, Mikan sees the red gem shining brightly from inside the clear stone, resting against Natsume's chest.
Mikan is thankful she didn't stray too far from the path on her quest to avenge her mother. It makes her wonder, though, when she realizes that all that stopped her was a single stone.
A/N- words you might not know:
Haki (the name I chose for Kuonji) – (覇気) meaning 'ambition'. It was the only one that sounded nice, seriously.
kakute – rings made of iron or steel with one to four spikes protruding from it
kunai – generally a leaf-shaped/arrow-shaped blade, with the handle and a ring on the end. You've probably seen it in Naruto.
kunoichi – a female ninja. Though, you should know that already by the time you get here…
naginata – a long pole fitted with a slightly curved metal blade; often considered a woman's weapon
shuriken – known as 'throwing star' and generally used for throwing. You've probably seen it in Naruto, too.